Liquefied natural gas, referred to in abbreviated form as “LNG,” is a natural gas which has been cooled to a temperature of approximately −162° C. (−260° F.) and typically stored at a pressure of up to approximately 25 kPa (4 psig), and has thereby taken on a liquid state. Natural gas (NG) is primarily composed of methane, but can include ethane, propane, and heavy hydrocarbon components such as butanes, pentanes, hexanes, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes. Many natural gas sources are located a significant distance away from the end-consumers. One cost-effective method of transporting natural gas over long distances is to liquefy the natural gas and to transport it in tanker ships, also known as LNG-tankers. The LNG is transformed back into gaseous natural gas at the destination.
In a typical liquefaction process a compressor is used to deliver pressurized mixed refrigerant (MR) to a cold box, which in turn is used to cool a feedstock, such as a natural gas, to form a liquefied gas. The heavy hydrocarbon components in NG will condense and freeze at higher temperatures than the lighter components. Therefore, it can be beneficial to remove heavy hydrocarbon liquid components from the NG during liquefaction. The heavy hydrocarbon liquid components can be put through a distillation process to separate the individual heavy hydrocarbon components. Accordingly, there is a need to efficiently supply heat to the distillation system to distill the heavy hydrocarbon liquid.